Bake a French Chocolate Cake: the Trianon / Royal

When you think of french sweets you imagine some sort of fancy and complicated cakes. This one may look fancy and elegant but it will not be very complicated.

It´s name is the "Royal" or the "Trianon". The second name would indicate that it was created for Marie-Antoinette who loved the "Petit Trianon" a little summer residence were it is said that she lived in luxury and debauch.

Others say that this story was invented by Carrefour, a big supermarket who sells these sweets.

Anyway it is a realy delicate and beautiful desert for special occasions.

Since my native language isn´t english I probably did tons of mistakes, sorry! Try to ignore them if you can.

Step 1: What You Will Need

Since this is a french cake, some ingrediants are quite hard to find. But do not worry: I, myself, live in Germany and had to find alternatives that you should be able to find about everywhere.

Ingredients ( for a cake for about 8 persons):

-2 eggs

-a little tee spoon of baking powder

-40 g. ground hazelnut

-30 g. melted butter

-15 g. flour ( if possible cake floor but it works with normal floor to)

-50 g. sugar

-220 g. of pralinoise ( easy to find in France, in the rest of the world it will be difficult to find so take a caramel chocolate, for the cake in the picture I used milka caramel chocolate).

-40 g. Pralin ( again it´s easy to find in France but doesn´t really exist in other countries. In Germany I found about the same thing: "Geröstete Hazelnussstücke" . It´s some kind of rosted, caramelised nuts. If you find nothing that looks like this just take some little crunchy cereals or just do without it).

-100 g. of gavotte ( again, if you don´t live in France use any kind of crêpe-sweets or you can use cornflakes, it works to).

-300 g of dark chocolate if you like it´s bitter taste if not, use milk chocolate but it may become very sweet.

-1/2 a liter of cream (about 35 % fat).

Ustensils:

- an egg whisk ( it will be a lot easier for you if you use en electrical one to whip the cream but for the other stepps I personnally prefer a manual one, however do how it suits you).

- a backing pan, if possible a spring form pan or an adjustable pan ( like in the first two picture above), if not use a normal quite high backing pan but then adjust the baking parchment so that it also covers the walls. Anyway please do not use one with wave forms on the sides like the last picture above. Don´t do that to yourself and your cake. it will take you a lot of time to extract your cake from this form and it will probably ruin its shape. I tend to use a square form but that´s just a matter of taste.

- a silicone matt or clingfilm.

- a few goblets and bowls.

Step 2: Mixing the Biscuit Batter

For the biscuit you will need the eggs, the baking powder, the hazelnuts, the melted butter, the floor and the sugar.

First mix the sugar and the eggs with a egg whisk for about one or two minutes. When there is some kind of white foam on the mixture you´ve finished.

Add the other ingredients.

Don´t do like I did on the picture. It´s easier if you add the ingredients the one after the others.

The result should be quite liquid.

Prepare your baking pan with a buttered baking parchment. Then pour the batter in it and let it bake for 10/ 15 minutes at 180°C (= 356°F, = thermostat 6). When its finished let it cool down.

Step 3: The Cake Until Now...

This is what the finished biscuit should look like.

To make sure that it won´t stick to the pan you can take it out and put it back in.

TIP: If you have trouble extracting the biscuit from the baking pan and you have a sping form pan or an adjustable pan remove the bottom and place a wet cloth under it for a minute or so. After this it will be much easier.

Step 4: Make the Extra-crunchy Layer

During the baking and cooling-down time you can prepare the crunchy, crusty, caramel/chocolate layer.

You will need the caramel chocolate or the Pralinoise, the Pralin or what you chose instead and the Gavottes or the Cornflakes.

With very little heat melt your caramel chocolate, during this time you can grind your cornflakes or your gavotte.

TIPP: Doing so often results in little pieces of cornflakes everywhere in your kitchen. To avoid that before grinding them pour your flakes into a palstic bag ( second picture above) and grind them after closing the bag.

Pay attention not to reduce your flakes to Corrnflakes flour!

Mix the melted chocolate with the cornflakes and the Pralin. Then poor them unto the first layer of cake ( the biscuit layer). Flatten it down with your hands so that it becomes a thin crunchy layer.

TIP: To avoid that everything sticks to your hands plunge them into cold water.

Step 5: The Cake Until Now...

So this is how the cake should look after you put the crunchy layer on it.

Put everything into the fridge while you do the forth step.

Step 6: The Chocolate Mousse

For this step if you have your own recepe of mousse au chocolat that you love above all, please go ahead and do it. If not, here´s my favorite recepe:

With very low heat melt the dark or milk chocolate. Then let it cool down a little bit. When you will mix it to the cream it should be skin-warm, not hot and completly liquid, not cold and hard.

Whip your cream with your egg whisp. When you can turn it upside down and nothing falls down you´re ready.

First take only one spoonful of the whipped cream and incorporate it delicatly to the chocolate. Do so with all the cream.

Then poor the cream in the baking pan above the two other layers of batter and put it into the fridge.

TIP: if you have trouble with whipping your cream put the bowl in wich you will whip it, the cream itself and the whips into the fridge for a moment. Cold cream will lift easyier.

TIP: if you want your cake to be less fat you can make a white-egg chocolate mousse. Whip 6 egg-whites instead of the cream ( raw eggs can be dangerous if they aren´t fresh and of a good quality or if you have a delicate stomach so take care).

If you want to do a valentine decoration ( Step 9) reserve one spoonful of whipped cream for later.

Step 7: The Cake Until Now

The cake should cool down for at least two hours but the best is to do it the day before and do the decoration at the last minute the next day.

Step 8: Decorate the Cake, Idea 1: Fancy Cake for New Year

Here are a few ideas about how I decorate my cakes. If you want the cake to be super elegant ( maybe for New Year or for a trendy birthday cake) you can decorate it with these fancy chocolate fragments.

1. First, you have to melt the chocolate on very, very low heat ( it´s even more important than before. If the heat is to high the chocolate fragments will not hold).

2. put it on a silicone matt or clingfilm. Fold the matt or the film press on it, then open it up again. This way you will have a thin chocolate layer. Put it into the fridge for an hour.

3. to make the decoration on the plate mix honey and a little bit of water, dip your finger in it and draw the form you want very lightly on the plate. Spray cocoa on it, then blow to eliminate the cocoa. Some will stick on the part with the honey and create a nice effect.

4. Take the chocolate layer and separate it from the matt or the film then break it into pieces. Stick the pieces into the cake.

Step 9: Idea 2: Romantic Chocolate for Saint-Valentine´s Day

1. To make the decoration on the plate cut out a heart in some paper, then wipe over the plate with a wet tissue. Place the paper on it and spray cocoa over it. Take the paper heart away delicatly. The cocoa will stick to the wet plate. This should create the cute heart form.

2. To make the little red dots use food colorants or raspberry juice. Uce a little barbecue stick to place the drops on the cake.

3. The pink mouse is the mixture of some whipped cream and raspberry juice or food colorants.

And this is the end, I really like this cake and hope some of you will try and like

it !

Sorry again for all the mistakes I probably made.